The Innocent
by Innocent Blood
Summary: Tobias, Ax, and the other Animorphs are in for an interesting mission. They were informed by the Chee that the Yeerks are up too something again, this time developing a ray to make their human controllers immortal by stopping the aging process See Bio for
1. Chapter 1: TOBIAS

A/N: First of all, thank you to all of you who read my first fic 'Shorm'. You all seemed very enthusiastic about this idea in particular, so I decided I'd start to read it.  
  
The way I got this story idea is very interesting. I was playing a game with my younger sister, TD, and I really wanted Tobias to be a little kid in this game and be taken care of by her favorite character, Ax. I tweaked it a little here, messed with some of the idea here, and the fic was born ^_^.  
  
This story will be written in Megamorphs style, including the opening explanation. Just pretend you are reading one of the Megamorphs that happens to fit between #23-24. Think of it as Megamorphs 2.5 ^_^.  
  
Please note that Tobias will only get one chapter, the first chapter, and why will become more apparent later on.  
  
\\Thought speech//  
  
Disclaimer: K.A. Applegate and Scholastic, not by the lowly authoress, own Animorphs.  
  
Genre: Um.I'll get back to you on that ^_^;  
  
Rating: PG to PG-13  
  
Summery: Tobias, Ax, and the other Animorphs are in for an interesting mission. They were informed by the Chee that the Yeerks are up too something again, this time developing a ray to make their human controllers immortal by stopping the aging process. But when Tobias is hit with it, they're in for a big problem in a small package! *Between books #23-24. Featuring Chibi Toby! *  
  
Authoress: Innocent Blood (tobias_ax_shorm@yahoo.com)  
  
Title: The Innocent  
  
Chapter 1  
  
TOBIAS  
  
My name is Tobias.  
  
Tobias no-last-name. Tobias no-home. Tobias I-can't-tell-you-anything. Tobias the-freak-of-nature.  
  
Even if it were safe to tell you my last name, my address, and all that other information, I'm not sure I could. I don't think I remember it anymore. You tend to forget things you never use. After all, who needs a last name when you live in a tree and eat mice?  
  
Heh. I'll bet you have a bad image of a wild boy kneeling down in the forest with a mouse-tail hanging from his mouth. Well, don't be too grossed out. I'm a hawk, not a human. I was human for the first part of my life though. At least, part human. I also happen to be, by some odd twist of fate or the Ellimist, part Andalite.  
  
You probably think I'm crazy, and I might agree with you. Sometimes I'm not sure anymore whether I'm sane, or whether I've created this whole war in my head. What war you ask? The intergalactic war against the Yeerks of course!  
  
What's a Yeerk? It's an ugly grey slug, maybe, *maybe*, two inches long. Not very threatening is it? Until you consider the fact that these tiny slugs have the ability to crawl into the ear canal, by-pass the inner ear, and wrap itself around your brain, then take complete control. I really mean complete control.  
  
Oh, you'll still be in your head, but as a prisoner. The Yeerk will have complete access to your body, your memories, to your family. The Yeerk, not you, will be living your life. Sucks, doesn't it?  
  
The worst part is, we don't know whose a controller, or infested with a Yeerk, and whose not. The Yeerks are very good at what they do, I'll give them that much.  
  
So, who's fighting this silent invasion? The government? The great world leaders? No. Try a bird-boy, one very lost teenage alien, and four teenage kids. And you thought humans were going to kill each other with nuclear weapons, didn't you?  
  
We do have one weapon the Yeerks don't, our only weapon. The power to morph, to become any animal we can touch in our natural forms by absorbing their DNA. The Andalite war prince Elfangor gave this power to us. My father, though I didn't know it at the time. I would like to think that he did, but really, how could he? As far as he knew, probably, I was just another human kid that happened to be in the right place at the right time. Or the wrong place and the wrong time, if you are Marco.  
  
Morphing isn't without limits though. You have to be able to touch the animal in your natural form, a real problem if you are Ax or me. Secondly, you can only stay in morph for two hours, or get stuck there permanently. End of story. That's what happened to me, I got stuck as a hawk on our first mission, until the "all powerful" Ellimist gave me my power back.  
  
Now that you have some background, let me bring you up to speed. Earth's only hope, the Animorphs as we call ourselves, were having a meeting. Erek the Chee, one of our indestructible pacifist android allies, had given us a disturbing new piece of information. It turns out that humans age a bit faster than other alien species. So we get weaker and die faster. The Yeerks didn't like that. Now they were trying to find an anti-aging ray to keep their Controllers young and healthy. All of this Jake, the unofficial leader of our band of misfits, had just finished explaining to us.  
  
"Let me get this straight. The Yeerks invent a fountain of youth to keep their warriors young and strong, instead of selling the rights to make enough money for a new fleet of space ships?" That was Marco. The voice of reason, but only when he had to be. Now wasn't when he had to be.  
  
\\ Actually, even with your money, you would not have the technology to even build a decent bug fighter. //  
  
"Our money, Ax. You live here now, and it's your money too. Get over it." I would have smiled if I'd had a mouth to do it with. Ax was my best friend in the whole world, and also happened to be my uncle in an odd sort of way. Like I said, I'm one screwed up bundle of genetics.  
  
"So what do you want us to do with this, Jake? They don't even know if the ray works yet!" Rachel fumed from her place on top of a pile of hay. Even in Cassie's dusty barn, she still somehow looked perfect and completely in place.  
  
"They're testing it in the forest, about five miles from Tobias's meadow. All I'm suggesting is that we check it out. For the moment, it isn't a threat. But, we need to know the instant it is."  
  
"So, you want Ax and Tobias to look?" Cassie guessed from where she'd been tending an injured blue jay. I'd tried to explain to her it wasn't worth it, one blue jay wouldn't be missed by anything, but somehow she didn't understand. Jake nodded to her before looking at the two of us.  
  
"Just lie low. Do NOT draw attention to yourselves. Just watch for about an hour, see how far a long they are, and then get out. Whatever you do, do not engage in battle. We don't want the Yeerks to catch onto us yet."  
  
Yeah, okay, easier said then done. \\ Okay, Jake. We'll be good, promise. // Ax smiled up at me with his main eyes, his stalk eyes darting this way and that. No matter how much time I spent with him, that would still creep me out. Two hours later, Ax and I are hanging out in the sky over a meadow that was *way* to crowded to not be where the Yeerks with their nice new toy.  
  
\\ There are only human controllers here. // Ax observed. I had noticed this too.  
  
\\ It's probably too risky for them to bring out anything else. They haven't even bothered to put a hologram around this. Must not be very high up on the Visser's priority list. Still, messing with aging has to be dangerous. I want a closer look. //  
  
\\Prince Jake said to remain inconspicuous. //  
  
\\Yeah, well Jake isn't here. Besides, I will be inconspicuous. See how they're all human? Well, I can pull that trick too. //  
  
\\ Do you wish me to accompany you for back up? // I thought about this for a minute. Even as soon as it was after the incident with DeGroot and Aria/Visser 3 no one down there had any reason to suspect me of being anything more than a Controller just like them. Still, the thought of having Ax in the trees in case something did go horribly wrong was very comforting.  
  
\\ Okay, demorph and remain hidden while I check things out. If something goes wrong, get out. // We both knew the last part would be completely ignored. Ax and I had been close before I found out Elfangor was my father, about three months ago, but now he was downright possessive. It was endearing, actually. I landed in some bushes about ten minutes from the Yeerk's meadow, demorphed, and then walked in as casually as I could.  
  
'Okay, Tobias, act casual. Act like you belong, and no one will even notice that you shouldn't be here. No one will talk to you.'  
  
"Hey, you!"  
  
'Or not.' I turned, trying to look as annoyed as I could. "Yeah, what?"  
  
"You shouldn't be here!" The controller said angrily. He looked about 25, with thin brown hair. Not at all threatening. Still, I didn't want to mess with him if I could avoid it. Time to activate plan "free pass".  
  
"The Visser sent me," I sneered. I saw the little flicker of fear across his face. Bingo. Then, to my surprise, his expression changed to delight.  
  
"Ah, yes, we have been expecting you. Please step this way." Expecting me? That was never good. But, I couldn't back out now, or it'd be obvious that I wasn't supposed to be there at all. Gulping as quietly as I could, I stepped over the grass. The guy led me to a blank patch in the middle of the meadow, where there wasn't even any grass.  
  
"Stand there." I did, blinking, and trying to look unconcerned, but I noticed that all activity in the meadow was now focused on me. Not a good sign.  
  
"Our last test subject vanished. We believe he shrunk down in age to non- existence. But we are confident we have fixed the problem." Test subject? Shit! I tried to escape, but it was to late. A ray of purple light fired at me from somewhere across the meadow, and it hit me directly in the chest. I gasped as a tingling sensation spread over my body, and then everything began to grow as I felt myself shrink. Couldn't focus, couldn't yell for Ax. I felt my thoughts slipping away, and then.  
  
END A/N: All right, I know this chapter is WAY rushed, but I just had to get it written to give you a bit of background information. It's choppy too, but oh well *sigh*. The rest of them will follow a more logical thought pattern, I promise. This one was just a necessary evil.  
  
Gambatte Kudasai,  
  
IB 


	2. Chapter 2: AX

A/N: One minor mistake last chapter. I accidentally said that Tobias demorphed to human, when he really morphed. My bad. Reviewer responses at the bottom ^_^.  
  
Also, I know Ax doesn't mention his scoop until #28, but lets say he got it in between his last book and #28.  
  
\\ Thought speech //  
  
Chapter 2  
  
AX  
  
\\ Tobias! // My warning came to late. The Yeerk ray hit him in the chest. I watched, struck with horror, as he began to shrink. I had seen him morph many times of course, but this was different. He was shrinking in proportion, and nothing new had appeared. He was not demorphing.  
  
When he had reached about the height of my knees, he stopped. He looked confused, and I do not think he remembered what had just happened, for he was now a very young human child. This was not a good thing, for us or the Yeerk apparently.  
  
"The Visser will not be pleased!" One of the female Controllers yelled very shrilly, and I cannot say I blamed her for her panic. Visser Three had not come as far as he did in the Yeerk hierarchy by being pleasant to subordinates. Particularly ones that failed.  
  
"The Visser must not know! We will kill the evidence of this experiment and pretend it never happened." This told me two very important things. The Yeerks did not know how to fix this unpleasant situation, and secondly I had to get Tobias out of this right now. I did not like the idea of my shorm being killed, and I would save him even if it meant defying my prince.  
  
I jumped out of the bushes, planless, and raced across the meadow. Fortunately, most of the Controllers were to surprised by my sudden appearance in the meadow to do anything but get out of my way. Unfortunately, the first to recover was the one person holding a Dracon Beam.  
  
"Andalite!" He cried, voice full of hatred, and fired haphazardly. I dodged aside, pushing my legs to their full speed, and scooped Tobias up in my forearms as I ran by.  
  
"Whee!" The child in my arms cried as we raced past.  
  
"Hey! He's taking the kid!"  
  
"He's trying to save it!"  
  
"Stupid Andalite!" Another blast took the ground out from under my back hoof just seconds after I had moved it. I lurched forward, and my weak upper arms almost dropped the child I was holding. This way of escaping wasn't going to work.  
  
I did not like the other alternative, but it was either surely injure him carrying him, or have him possibly get hit.  
  
\\ Tobias, can you hold onto my back? //  
  
"How you know my name?" The child asked in wonder. There was no time for long explanations. I'd have to hope that human children where the same as Andalite children.  
  
\\ I am a friend Tobias. I cannot offer you proof, so you will have to trust me. // This seemed enough for him, as he asked no more question. \\ Now, can you hang onto my back while I run? //  
  
"Piggyback?" I had no idea what that meant, and I really couldn't trust this child's reasoning, but I was out of options as the Yeerks fired at me, and I once more almost dropped him. The child yelled in fright.  
  
\\ Yes, like a piggyback. Just wrap your arms as tight around my chest as you can. // Without further thought, I half turned and put him on my back, and held his arm while he adjusted himself. I let go, and his small arms wrapped around my upper body. They did not go all the way around, but it would have to work.  
  
All of this was happening as I plunged into the forest, with a small group of Controllers on my trail. I very much missed having Tobias in the sky giving me directions so that I could lose them. I would have to rely upon my own knowledge of the area and what I had seen earlier.  
  
If I remembered correctly, there was a small stream that cut across the forest, down in the direction of Tobias's meadow. It would not be more than a trickle, but it would work. It would be right about.  
  
My hoofs splashed into the small amount of water, and the child on my back squealed. I turned as fast as I dared, and ran down stream. Now the controllers would be unable to follow my trail, and they had been just far enough behind that they most likely would not have seen me take this route. Still, I did not dare stop running until we were safely back at my scoop. I took the dirty and wiggling child off my back and inspected him.  
  
\\ You are not harmed are you Tobias? // I asked. Rather large blue eyes blinked up at me.  
  
"Toby." He said.  
  
\\ What? // I was confused. He had not remembered me, but he could remember the Hork-Bajir seer? I was greatly surprised when he formed one chubby hand into a fist, and point to himself with his thumb.  
  
"Not Tobias, Toby." He said matter-of-factly.  
  
\\ Oh. // I did not understand fully, but I decided that he wanted to be called Toby instead of Tobias. Why, I do not know. I really needed to think. I had lost the controllers, but they now knew that an Andalite had one of their own, or so they thought. Tobias was not safe. And of course, Prince Jake must be informed of how badly our observation mission had gone. But he was at school.  
  
I looked down at Tobias. He was standing in the mud, barefoot, and wearing skintight clothing, with his blonde hair standing up all over the place. He looked up at me, looking miserable. I could not wait for Prince Jake and the others to get out of school.  
  
\\ Now, Toby, I'm going to have to change. But do not be frightened. I will still be your friend. //  
  
"Are you doin' magic?" He asked excitedly. I knew better than to ask a human of this age what magic was. I would just go with what he could relate things too.  
  
\\ Yes, magic. So, do not be frightened. // I closed my main eyes, and concentrated on my human morph. I felt my stalk eyes retract into my head first, and my tail began to shrink. Pink, soft flesh covered my body, replacing my blue fur. My arms expanded, grew stronger, and my fingers dwindled in number until they formed five thicker ones. My front legs vanished, but my spin had not yet straightened, and I was trying desperately to balance on my hind legs alone by swinging my arms wildly. Lips formed, then teeth, a tongue, and my jawbone. Last of all, my spin straightened and then I was finished. Tobias looked up at me in awe.  
  
"Wow." He said. I reached into my scoop, and dressed myself quickly, before once more picking up Tobias.  
  
"We are going to go get more of our friends. Ends. Nnnnndzzz."  
  
"Okay." Tobias said happily. I trudged the rest of the way to the human school. Luckily I had been to school once, so I knew where it was. All the while Tobias was asking questions, until I'd tried to explain to him exactly how I could morph. He stopped asking me questions after that.  
  
I walked up to the lady with thick glasses sitting behind a desk.  
  
"Can I help you dear?"  
  
"Yes. I am Phillip. I am a foreigner. I need to see Jake."  
  
"Jake who, dear?"  
  
"I am not a deer." I said. "I am human. Mun." She raised an eyebrow at me.  
  
"Which Jake would you like to speak too?" She said again, her voice less patient this time. For the second time in several minutes I was confused.  
  
"You mean there is more than one?"  
  
"Yes, there are several."  
  
"That is ridiculous! Shouldn't each human have a different name?" So silly, to have someone with the same name as you! How could humans keep each other straight?  
  
"Yes, that would make things easier wouldn't it? Now, if you don't tell me which Jake you need to talk to I'm afraid I will have to ask you and your child to leave." I did not bother to tell her that my human morph was much to young to have offspring. I had another problem to worry about. I did not know how to explain to her which Jake I wished to talk to! I could not tell her Prince Jake, that would only confuse her.  
  
"Ax?" I turned. Cassie was standing in the door, a piece of bright colored paper in her hand.  
  
"Cassie." I greeted, smiling. She stared at me.  
  
"Ax what are you." she looked down at Tobias, who was trying to hide behind my legs. I too looked at him, and he let out a small, frightened, sob. Cassie's eyes rounded. "Oh my.is that Tobias?!"  
  
"Yes. Things did not go according to plan." Cassie went over to the lady behind the desk.  
  
"I'm sorry, he's not from around here. His cousin goes here, and there is a family emergency." She told her Prince Jake's name, and the lady called his class. Cassie took me to wait in the hallway for him.  
  
"What happened?" She asked shrilly, looking from me to Tobias and back again.  
  
"Tobias was used as a test subject for the anti-aging ray. It did not go well."  
  
"I gathered that." Prince Jake came running up, took one look at us, and went into what Marco calls fearless leader mode.  
  
"I don't want details. You can fill us in when we get back to the forest. Right now you can't be here. If any higher-ranking controllers have been informed, Chapman will be here. I'll make the office some lie, and get Rachel out of class. Cassie, you and Marco follow when you can. I know it's risky, but I think this constitutes and an emergency." He looked at Tobias, who looked back with abnormally large blue eyes. I had to agree with Prince Jake. The situation was not pleasant.  
  
End A/N: Time for reviewer responses ^_^.  
  
Tomgirl27: Tobias won't be hurt ^_^.yet.not promising anything later. There's going to be much fluff between now and then though.  
  
Shadow: I will try to be consistent updating quickly, but sometimes things come up. I'll try to limit it to under a month, however, as I have a cute Christmas story I want to start then. Not telling ^_-.  
  
Scorpion Lord: Okay, I'll explain. Immortal just means you don't age. Immortal people (including the ancient gods) can be killed in battle, but they do not age. Invincible people do not age and cannot be killed or die. Make sense now?  
  
Jinako-chan: Don't worry, there will be much of the Animorphs taking care of Toby the three year old ^_^. Next chapter is Marco. I think it will be extremely entertaining. MWHAHAHAHA!  
  
Well, that's all for now. Gambatte Kudasai!  
  
-IB 


	3. Chapter 3: MARCO

Chapter 3  
  
MARCO  
  
Cassie and I managed to slip away during lunch, and she debriefed me on the way. It tells you how weird my life has become when all I said was, "okay now what?" instead of freaking out. I mean it's not like Tobias is my best friend, but I still should have been sort of freaked out that he went from being a teenage bird-boy to a three-year-old regular boy in about a fifth of a second. We weren't even sure he's stopped deaging. For all we knew he could still be growing younger every hour or something. And that didn't creep me out. Actually, I was just creeped out that it didn't creep me out!  
  
Still, all this debriefing didn't prepare me for what I saw when I got Ax's scoop with Cassie. Jake was leaning against a tree, looking grave and serious. Not that I blamed him. There were some seriously bad things about this situation. Rachel looked, well, as upset as Rachel can look. I didn't really blame her, either. It's bad enough to be dating out of your species, worse when it's a *way* younger man.  
  
That was a joke, by the way.  
  
Ax looked just plain annoyed, and the reason became quite clear almost instantly. It seemed Tobias had decided his new Andalite friend made a great jungle gym, and was currently trying to climb on his head. I couldn't help it, I laughed. I mean, wouldn't you? A three-year-old using a part deer, part human, part scorpion with stalk eyes as playground equipment just strikes me as funny, okay?  
  
Ax shot me a look that was as venomous as I'd ever seen from him.  
  
\\Do you wish to hold Toby, Marco?// I looked at Tobias, who was now using Ax's tail as monkey bars. Lucky for him, Rachel grabbed him before his small hands found out what the end could do.  
  
"Nah. You look like you're handling it just fine." I smirked.  
  
"This," Rachel muttered, grabbing the squirming thing in her arms by the back of the shirt, "is a bad situation."  
  
"What, didn't the Yeerks build in a handy-dandy reverse switch?"  
  
\\ If they did, this would not be a problem. // Okay, so Ax-man was so *not* in the mood for jokes.  
  
"And the Yeerks might figure out they've been had when the Visser's real test subject shows up. They may figure out that the human was an 'Andalite' in morph."  
  
The situation has now lost all appearance of being humorous.  
  
"But they wouldn't know what deaging someone in morph would do," Cassie pointed out, taking Tobias from Rachel and hanging him upside down over her shoulder. This resulted in Tobias squealing with delight, and the rest of us managing to ignore it. Somehow.  
  
"Neither do we actually," I pointed out, "does the ray de-age the morph, and leave it a morph, or reverse someone to their true form as they were as a child?"  
  
"Obviously it turns them back to their original state." Rachel pointed out.  
  
"No, not obviously. Tobias morphed human."  
  
"It's his true form!"  
  
"It's also a morph." Jake held up his hands to stop our argument before it could go any farther.  
  
"The point is, Tobias is still three, the Yeerks will either a) decide it was an Andalite in morph or b) think we have one of their own in our keeping. Either way, they're going to be looking for Tobias. He cannot be seen."  
  
"In the mean time, what should we do with him? We can't exactly just show up at home with a three year old, now can we? Tends to make parents suspicious." I hate stating the obvious, but in the company present that was necessary. Ax squared his shoulders.  
  
\\ Prince Jake, I am to blame for this unfortunate incident, and would gladly take full responsibility for Tobias's care until a proper alternative can be thought of. //  
  
"Or until Rachel's old enough to be his mommy."  
  
"Shut up, Marco!"  
  
"You're no more to blame for this then the rest of us, Ax," Cassie said gently, "and Tobias can't stay in the forest. It's not healthy for little boys to be here all the time, and someone would notice him."  
  
"What if we told our parents it was a school assignment?" I suggested. "For Home Ec, or something."  
  
"You mean Family Consumer Sciences."  
  
"Say what?" Cassie shrugged.  
  
"That's what they call it now."  
  
"Ookay. Anyway, the point is if we tell them it's a school assignment, and take turns taking care of him, they shouldn't get to suspicious."  
  
"Only one problem," Rachel pointed out viciously, "most people aren't willing to let their toddler be taken care of by a group of teenagers."  
  
"So we say it's someone we know that our parents don't. Be creative."  
  
"It's a temporary solution at best, but it's all we have right now," Jake sighed. "Okay. One of us will take him on alternate nights, and he'll stay here with Ax during the day. It'll only work for a little while, but maybe we'll be able to come up with a better solution in the mean time."  
  
"That means no Xena: Warrior Princess for you, Rachel. Don't want to give the kid nightmares about babes in leather."  
  
"Since you're so into this Marco, why don't you take him first." I turned my head and stared at Jake.  
  
"Wait a minute, are you serious?" Jake just smirked at me, arms folded over his chest. "You are serious! Whoa, Jake buddy, I don't know the first thing about taking care of a kid! Why not have one of the girls do it first!" Rachel laughed at me.  
  
"Oh, now that Marco's on the receiving end, the joke suddenly isn't funny?"  
  
"It'll be good experience for you, Marco." Cassie said brightly, handing Tobias to me and pulling a piece of paper and a pen from her backpack. I held the wiggling bundle of blond hair as tightly, but as far away, as I could.  
  
"But, but."  
  
"Come on Marco, it can't be that hard." Jake smiled. "Toby is a good kid, aren't you, Toby?"  
  
"Uh-huh!" Toby said, tilting his head back to look at me. "I be good!" I gave him a doubtful look.  
  
"There." Cassie stuck a folded piece of paper in my back pocket. "That's a list of emergency phone numbers. There's the police, the fire department, a pediatrician, our houses, poison control."  
  
"Okay, okay, Cassie, I get it. Don't go all motherly on us now. Toby and I will be just fine, won't we Toby?" Toby nodded his head; a grin on his face that I should have realized spelt trouble.  
  
"Okay then, we'll meet back here before school tomorrow." Cassie, Rachel, and Jake all left for their separate homes, but as I started to leave, Toby whimpered. I looked at him, surprised.  
  
"What is it?"  
  
"Ax no come with us?" I looked over my shoulder at Ax, who had appeared not to move, or to have heard. In fact, he seemed intensely interested in a bird above his head.  
  
"No, Toby, Ax can't come with us." His blue eyes suddenly filled with tears, and his bottom lip trembled.  
  
"But I want my Ax." A single tear slid down his face, and even as dumb about kids as I am, I knew that was not a good sign.  
  
"You'll get to see him tomorrow, Toby! You'll get to play with him all day tomorrow." He sniffled.  
  
"Promise?"  
  
"Yeah, I promise." I smiled at him in my most reassuring way, but I think it looked more like a grimace. "Now say good-bye." To my surprise Toby jumped from my arms and ran over to Ax, hugging his legs.  
  
"Buh-bye my Ax. Don't be sad. I be back tomorrow!" Ax smiled in that way only Andalites can, and bent over to hug the toddler.  
  
\\ Good-bye Toby. //  
  
"Can I get an 'Aw' from the audience please?" I whispered under my breath. "Come on Toby, we've got to go!" Toby obediently ran over, and I picked him up and placed him on my shoulders. "Later Ax-man."  
  
Normally the walk from Ax's scoop to my house isn't long or exhausting, but with a three year old riding your shoulders and asking questions every two steps, let me tell you it gets exhausting really fast. Lucky for me, when I got home, dad wasn't there. I put Tobias on the ground and made a quick sweep of the room to make sure there was nothing breakable in his reach. There wasn't.  
  
"Welcome to hotel Marco, Toby. Lets see if we can find some cartoons for you to watch, okay? I think I still have some old episodes of Ninja Turtles around here somewhere." the kid tugged on my jean legs.  
  
"I hungry, Marco."  
  
"Er.okay.let's see what we've got." I led him into the kitchen, conveniently ignoring the dirty dishes in the sink. I looked in the cupboards.  
  
"Oatmeal.grape nuts.jello.nothing there you want.oh hey, these'll work!" I pulled out a box of Hostess Ding Dongs. "Every kid loves these!" I handed him a couple, and he looked at them eagerly. I then handed him the box to hold, and that was my first big mistake of the night. After that I walked to the fridge, and found out that there was no milk, so I opened a mountain dew for him instead. For those keeping track, that was the second big mistake of the night. As I watched him guzzle the sweet caffeinated liquid I made an observation that was almost ironic. "I have the funniest feeling I shouldn't be feeding you this. I wonder why."  
  
About a half hour later, I knew why. And I was cursing the Hostess and Pepsi companies with every curse I knew.  
  
End A/N: Hee hee ^^! Poor Marco! Reviewers here you go:  
  
Selene-Yugi: Glad you liked it, and sorry this took so long to get updated!  
  
Blank 65: Wrote more, and hope you liked it just as much.  
  
Bird1111: Would you have read it if I had?  
  
Imagination-Power: Sure I will. Now that I've gotten this far, the rest is just fun ^^.  
  
Shi-no-Nezumi: If you've figured out how to draw Toby, let me know. I'm still working on that.  
  
Tomgirl27: Glad you like it! Personally, I think Toby is way cuter than Mokuba, but that's just me.  
  
Jinako-chan: As before, you're more than welcome to put this on your site ^^, as well as any of my other stories!  
  
Well, that's all the reviews. Gambatte Kudasai minnasan!  
  
-IB 


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